Elon Musk likely broke the law by giving voters $1 million, Wisconsin board says
Musk May Have Broken Wisconsin Election Law With Voter Checks
Commission Finds Probable Cause for Violation
Elon Musk likely broke the law by – A bipartisan committee in Wisconsin has determined that Elon Musk likely broke the law when he distributed one million dollars in checks to voters during the 2025 state Supreme Court contest. The Wisconsin Elections Commission forwarded two separate grievances to the Brown County district attorney’s office last week, giving prosecutors the opportunity to pursue criminal charges related to the state’s election bribery provisions. District attorneys now have forty days to submit their findings back to the commission.
The commission, which comprises three Democratic and three Republican members, reached its decision through a five-to-one vote held during a closed session on Thursday. According to commission spokesperson Emilee Miklas, the motion indicated that officials found probable cause that the billionaire transgressed Wisconsin law through a social media announcement. That post promised one million dollars to individuals who cast ballots in the Supreme Court election, with the stated purpose of encouraging voter participation.
“The payments were designed to cultivate a grassroots movement against activist judges rather than to directly advocate for or against any specific candidate.” — Musk’s legal filings, 2025
Election Background and Legal Challenges
The technology entrepreneur, who serves as CEO of Tesla and founded SpaceX, played a significant role in attempting to shift control of Wisconsin’s highest court. Musk and organizations he backed invested a minimum of twenty million dollars supporting Brad Schimel, the Republican-backed candidate. Despite this substantial financial commitment, Schimel ultimately fell short by ten percentage points against Susan Crawford, who received Democratic backing.
The total expenditure for the election exceeded one hundred million dollars, establishing it as the priciest judicial race in American history. Following the decisive defeat, the billionaire publicly declared that he would significantly reduce his political campaign spending going forward.
The complaints originated from voters residing in Milwaukee and Green Bay, with the latter located within Brown County. Musk presented the checks at a rally held in Green Bay just several days prior to Election Day. Three Wisconsin residents ultimately received payments from him, including two individuals who collected their checks personally at the Green Bay gathering.
Under Wisconsin state law, the complaints remain confidential. Brown County District Attorney David Lasee, a Republican, did not promptly return a message requesting comment on Tuesday. Musk’s representatives also failed to provide immediate responses to inquiries.
Two weeks before the election, the billionaire’s political action committee, known as America PAC, extended an offer of one hundred dollars to voters who signed a petition opposing activist judges or referred someone else to sign it. This initiative preceded the Supreme Court contest by a similar margin.
The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a government watchdog organization, has already filed a lawsuit stemming from Musk’s spending on the 2025 race. The case, currently pending in Brown County, seeks to prevent the billionaire from ever again offering cash payments within the state. The lawsuit contends that Musk and two organizations he finances violated prohibitions against vote bribery and unauthorized lotteries, while also constituting an unlawful conspiracy and public nuisance.
Wisconsin’s Democratic attorney general previously attempted to halt Musk from distributing checks to two voters, but state courts rejected that effort. In legal filings from 2025, the billionaire’s attorneys contended that he was exercising his free speech rights through the giveaways. They argued that any restriction on this practice would violate both the Wisconsin and United States constitutions.
Crawford’s victory preserved liberal control of the state Supreme Court, and that majority expanded to five-to-two following the election of Chris Taylor, another Democratic-backed candidate, earlier this year.
America PAC employed a nearly identical strategy before the 2024 presidential election. During that campaign, the committee offered to pay one million dollars per day to voters in Wisconsin and six additional battleground states who signed a petition supporting the First and Second amendments. A Pennsylvania judge subsequently ruled that prosecutors had not demonstrated the initiative constituted an illegal lottery, permitting the program to run through Election Day.